At times such as these the economy reminds us of the inscription that Dante read at the gates to hell, “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here.” My firm takes a different view of this grim admonition. At the risk of sounding pollyanish, we look for the silver lining instead of succumbing to panic.

Can the economy get any worse from here? Perhaps, yet the situation brings to mind an old aphorism, “The worse things were…the better they got.” The Gershwin Brothers put the same thought another way, “With gloom to lead the way, I’ve seen more skies of gray, then any Russian play can guarantee.” The time to buy stocks is when the lumpen are terrified, not euphoric.